Have you ever considered what poor communication costs an organization? As a seasoned writer who helps clients clarify their communications for a living, I sure have.
When my mom was alive and going in and out of the hospital (in her case, Kaiser), I spent a lot of time dealing with both the staff and my mom in relation to the staff. I often noticed the quality of communication at Kaiser was not great. In some cases, this is understandable. It’s hard to effectively communicate with someone who is delirious from a UTI. However, in many cases, misunderstanding and miscommunication could easily have been avoided if, for example, the person speaking waited until the person being spoken to was paying attention and ready to receive.
After a while, I started wondering how much money Kaiser would save if everyone who worked there saved one minute a day by simply being more effective with their communication (both speaking and listening). Well, here is my effort at giving the numbers a shot.
For this exercise, I am using publicly available information from Kaiser and salary.com, which at least provide a base to work with.
Per Kaiser, they currently have 305,000 employees.
I am estimating that 35% of their staff interact with patients, which makes 106,750 client-facing employees. I am also assuming that there are on average 240 work days each year:
52 weeks/year – 4 weeks for vacations and sick leave = 48 weeks
48 weeks x 5 work days = 240 work days
Per salary.com, the average Kaiser salary is $79,149/year.
$79,149/240 work days = $329.79/8 work day, which = $41.22/hour
$41.22/ hour = $0.69/minute
$0.69/minute saved by better communication x 106,750 employees = $73,657.50 saved every day
$73,657.50 saved x 240 work days = $17,677,800 Kaiser would save every year
From this rough, back of the envelop calculation, Kaiser would save $73,657.50 /day and $17,677,800 /year if each employee saved one minute per day through more effective communication. If I expand that out to all employees, from the C-level to the cleaning crew, Kaiser would save $50,508,000/year. For one damned minute.
In my follow up posts, I will suggest some practical, simple ways that anyone in an organization can save that minute. In the meantime I ask: How much would your organization or group save if its members were more efficient for one minute each day?
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